JoeK,
When the church first began, the Holy Spirit was moving in a marvelous and yet very specific way. “Basically” they baptized many and very fast. However, in God’s providence such an event has never taken place since – and neither can it because the church is no longer in its infancy. As time progressed, the church became wiser to the fact that people could just “say the truth” and not really know it. They saw that heretics were coming into their ranks and corrupting “God’s church.” As the church grew so did its wisdom. Thus, as in Paul’s later writings we see such things as “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thess. 5:21) and for the office of a deacon, “… And let these also first be proved …” (1 Tim. 3:10). However, as early as in Galatians we see Paul’s words, “Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things” (Gal. 6:6) indicating a formal preparation for entrance into the Church.
Let him who receives instruction—literally, the catechumen, a word that is still being used in religious circles—in the Word share all good things with his instructor, that is, with the catechist? It is worthy of note that even at this very early date there was in existence something similar to today’s official Christian ministry. Cf. I Cor. 12:28; Eph. 4:11. [William Hendriksen]
In other words, the teacher relieves the ignorance of the pupil
catechumen; the pupil should relieve the teacher of concern for his subsistence. How was this done? The Greek word used to describe the shared life of the people of God was
koinonia. Our best word for it in English is “fellowship,” but this is far too limited to encompass the meaning of the Greek.
Koinonia means sharing, all kinds of sharing: sharing in friendship (Acts 2:42), being partners in the gospel (Phil. 1:5), sharing material possessions (2 Cor. 8:4), having fellowship in Christ (1 Cor. 1:9), and sharing life together in the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). Above all,
koinonia is fellowship with God. “That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship” (
koinonia, 1 John 1:3) — that life we share with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.
Justin Martyr (app. 165) in his first Apology described the catechumenate and Tertulian (app. 220) coined the title “catechumen.” The catechumenate involved several stages, each with a catechetical, ascetical and liturgical facet, and usually lasted three years.
But, please understand that we do not need a direct Scripture that says, “examine all converts before baptism,” but doctrine may be established by the good and necessary consequence of all scripture. The church is not to baptize as ostriches, that is with their head in the sand, but upright, knowing as well as they may what and who they are baptizing. And yes, while one may memorize answers, the interviewer is looking for more than just mere words, but also the person’s way of life – through (
koinonia). This is the reason why there should be relaxed social gatherings and such with new converts. As Poythress states, “Indifferentism presumes that church members are secure and so neglects exhorting them to grow and rebuking them for sin. Rigorism makes the standards of admission to the church so high that only the spiritually mature can meet them. Both indifferentism and rigorism are contrary to the biblical picture of gradual growth in maturity through active participation in the life of the body (Eph 4:11-16).”
